In her article about using blogs to teach philosophy, Linda E. Patrik touches on the blogs vs forums issue, in the context of learning management systems. (For Blackboard, substitute IVLE.) Her blogging model involves student blogging. This is the approach which Alex Mitchell and Kevin Lim have taken. The model is feasible when the class size is small. That said, Kevin is trying to work around the time limitation of reading and assessing a large number of student blogs. Alex Holbo's workaround is to get his students to post comments (they needn't comment on every post) of his module blog, instead of their own blogs.

But I digress.

Linda summarises her thoughts on why and how she uses blogs in her philosophy class vis-à-vis forums:

Several course management programs have a Discussion medium that is similar to a blog, but most of these programs require students to participate in the same blog (e.g., Blackboard’s Discussion Board). The professor sets up the questions for discussion and debate, and then asks students to log in and comment on the questions. Course chat rooms are also a common online venture, lacking the individual character and control that separate student blogs have. The advantages of grading individual blogs outweigh the ease of grading discussions gathered in one blog or one chat room, considering that each student learns to write for a public beyond the professor; in addition, students can more easily compare their online work to that of others. Grades for individual blogs make more sense to students than do grades on what they have contributed to a common blog or chat room.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,